It’s hard to deny that animals and our love for them can play a big hand in marketing. I mean just look at the number of commercial ventures that have used an animal as their mascot in the past- even “LiMu Emu”, as bizarre a marketing choice it is, counts towards this. Fenris Creations, the developers behind the famous MMORPG Eve Online, released an update for the game back in June of this year called “Cradle of War”, which abbreviated spells COW. This was enough to spur the idea of livestreaming an actual cow playing Eve Online, leading to the magnificent spectacle that premiered on Twitch just two days ago. The star of the hour was that of eight-month old Icelandic dairy cow Valva (nicknamed “FC CapitalCowPilot” by Fenris Creations), who was able to play thanks to the “cow-proof” buttons that had been installed in her pen; these buttons were scattered about said pen and each one corresponded with an action you could make in-game, with the buttons allowing her to press enter, do “some fireworks and some other stuff”, and appropriately even moo.
Valva would pilot a Rorqual-class mining ship (nicknamed “The Rorcow”) as it went about its duties of collecting ore, although along the way would encounter enemy players who attacked friendly mining ships, prompting Peter “FC Swift” Farrell demand in chat that players “DON’T DUEL THE COW”. During the livestream, there were cow facts being read aloud as those watching could watch both in-game footage as well as a feed of Valva herself on her farm in Iceland, with a human developer at her side in the pen trying to encourage her to move around more in order to step on more buttons, but according to some who watched the stream, it may not have done much.
The new Cradle of War update comes with a number of new features and additions including “military campaigns”, which act as seasonal, region-spanning conflicts which have players supporting their empires via mining, manufacturing, warfare, etc, four new command carriers and four new navy destroyers, a new 53-region space called Exordium which is meant to be friendlier for new players and gives them room to learn the basics of the game, titles and achievements to show off a player’s history in-game, and more. Having launched back on June 9th of this year, the update has been available for sometime now, so if you’re a player returning from a hiatus or someone new to Eve Online, now might be a good time to jump in.